By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
January 6, 2015-For seemingly doing it all in soccer, Cesare Maniccia is being honored by the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) as our Personality of the Month for January. The 78-year-old Schenectady resident played professionally in Italy, then after immigrating to the United States, he founded a youth league, a soccer club and referee association while coaching teams plus refereeing and assessing games. And he helped give our organization its name.
Cesare grew up in the small town of Sgurgola, 30 miles south of Rome.
“3,000 live in Sgurgola, which includes human beings plus cows and chickens,” he quipped.
He did not have far to travel to play professionally as he was a forward with Colleferro of Serie D, the fourth level in Italian soccer. He joined his father in New York State when he was 21 and the rest of his family came a year later.
Cesare played for Cortland State and for the Schenectady Soccer Club of the Central New York Soccer Football Association. He was also elected league Secretary. He played against two men who would make a name for themselves, just like Cesare, after they hung up their cleats—longtime professional coach Timo Leokoski and United Soccer Leagues founder Francisco Marcos. But the league folded in 1980.
Much more successful has been the Capital District Youth Soccer League (CDYSL), which Cesare co-founded in 1978 along with Peter Clinton, Charles Guinn, James Sinkins and others. As the CDYSL’s first Secretary, Cesare wrote the original league rules, and served as CDYSL President in the early 1980’s. He was Director of the CDYSL Select Program for many years, then organized league tournaments.
During his tenure as President, the CDYSL grew exponentially and clubs north of Albany joined, including Massena on the Canadian border. But it belonged to the inappropriately-named Southern New York Youth Soccer Association. Cesare was one of the first pushing the name change to Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association. This made a lot of sense so the moniker was altered in 1982.
Seven years earlier, he founded the Colombo Soccer Club. That group underwent a name change as well.
“The people in the club complained that our name was not American enough, so we changed it to Rotterdam Youth Soccer Club in 1977,” Cesare explained.
He served as the club’s first President, from 1975 to 1993, and built the Rotterdam Youth Soccer Complex, whose 11 fields are still in use today.
Cesare served as Director of Eastern New York’s Olympic Development Program (ODP) for over a decade. Not surprisingly for all this volunteering, he’s a member of the Halls of Fame for Eastern New York and the CDYSL.
For five years, Cesare was the girls varsity coach at Schalmont High School, leading the Sabres to the Section 2 title and being named Coach of the Year twice.
He’s also a licensed referee and co-founded CD-REF, the Capital District’s soccer referee association, in 1984. He even refereed a few international games while also serving as an assessor in the old American Soccer League and being a nationally-licensed coach.
All while teaching Math at Albany State for 30 years. Congratulations to Cesare Maniccia, Eastern New York’s January Personality of the Month.
With 123,843 youth soccer players––68,587 boys and 55,256 girls––and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with 11 leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81. ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old, and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees and administrators. All levels of soccer are offered––from intramural, travel team and premier players as well as Special Children. No child who wants to play soccer is turned away. ENYYSA is a proud member of the United States Soccer Federation and United States Youth Soccer Association. For more information, please log on to http://www.enysoccer.com/, which receives nearly 300,000 hits annually from the growing soccer community.